Takeda opens Russian manufacturing facility
pharmafile | September 11, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Actovegin, Nycomed, Russia, Takeda
Takeda Pharmaceutical has officially opened its new manufacturing facility in Yaroslavl, Russia, and expects it to be operating at full capacity by 2014.
The €75 million plant covers 24,000 sq. m. and will supply tablet and sterile liquid products into Russia’s domestic drug market. It will create around 200 jobs from the outset, with more recruitment expected as the facility moves towards full operations.
Takeda has been pushing into emerging economies in recent years, most notably via its $13.6 billion acquisition of Swiss speciality pharma firm Nycomed in 2011 which is a big player in the fast-growing Russian market, currently ranked as the 11th largest in the world.
Nycomed catapulted Takeda into seventh place among Russia’s pharmaceutical suppliers, giving it a strong position in a market estimated by IMS to be worth around $14.7 billion in 2011. The Russian market is expected to post growth of 11% a year between 2012 and 2016, but Takeda expects to outperform that with annual growth of 15 per cent.
The Yaroslavl plan will make Nycomed brands such as Cardiomagnyl (aspirin plus magnesium hydroxide) for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases, a protein-free prescription product obtained from calf blood called Actovegin for peripheral and cerebral circulation problems and calcium supplements.
It will have the initial capacity to manufacture 90 million sterile ampoules and more than two billion tablets per year, according to Takeda.
“Russia is our largest emerging market in terms of revenues, and is expected to contribute significantly to our growth over the next few years,” commented Yasuchika Hasegawa, Takeda’s president and chief executive.
“The completion of this ambitious project further demonstrates Takeda’s transition into a truly global business,” he added.
The growth in Russia’s pharma market has also attracted other drugmakers in recent years, particularly in light of government plans to give preference to locally-made medicines in the national reimbursement system as it strives to reduce the country’s reliance on imports.
Last year, for example, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer joint venture ViiV Healthcare set up a manufacturing partnership with local firm JSC Binnopharm for the secondary manufacturing of HIV products. Meanwhile other companies building up manufacturing capacity in Russia of late include AstraZeneca, Novartis, Bayer, Teva and Aurobindo.
Phil Taylor
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